


Gateway Drug

by allislaughter



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Dreams, Gift Fic, Kissing, M/M, POV Third Person, Present Tense, References to Addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29964018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allislaughter/pseuds/allislaughter
Summary: Nick knows what addictions can do, and yet he still clings to his own personal addictions...
Relationships: Mysterious Stranger/Nick Valentine
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Gateway Drug

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Glowstickia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowstickia/gifts).



The sky is gray, the streets of what remains of Boston empty, and the silence heavy as Nick Valentine walks the path to Goodneighbor to make another visit to the Memory Den. Sometimes making sense of his own mind is more of a chore than he’s up for, between what memories are his and what memories are  _ his, _ but Nick is willing to take any relief from that he can. It’s almost like an addiction. His own personal one, rather than the draw to nicotine he can’t even satisfy that the old Nick left him as a gift. He knows what addiction can do to a man, and yet he still feels a sense of satisfaction whenever he has something that’s solely his and not something leftover from a man as dead as the streets around him...

...Something shifts in the silence, and Nick turns towards it, alert to the potential threat. “Who’s there?” he asks, his own voice sounding odd against the backdrop of nothing.

“Navigating your own mind is a challenge, I see,” an unfamiliar voice calls from around the corner where a shadow of a man in a hat creeps along. “How interesting. You are full of surprises, aren’t you, Detective?”

Nick scowls and reaches for his gun. “Now, I don’t know who you are or what you’re going on about, but—”

“Oh,” the voice says with a dark chuckle. The shadow grows bigger, its owner coming closer. “I think you’d know me when you see me, Detective.” The figure comes into sight.

Nick almost falters from shock but recovers quick enough. “The  _ Stranger. _ Trying to toy with me, are you?”

The Mysterious Stranger smiles at him, a cocky, toothy smile. “If you want to describe this as play, then I’m willing to play a game.” The Stranger steps back out of sight.

“Hey!” Nick follows after. He rounds the corner only to find no one there. “Dammit— Where’d you go? I’ll find you, I swear.”

“Then come find me,” the Stranger taunts. “You should learn to navigate eventually.”

“What does that  _ mean?” _ Nick growls in frustration but follows after the direction the Stranger’s voice takes him. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but this isn’t funny.”

“It’s just a simple game of hide and seek,” the Stranger answers. “As any child knows how to play. I hide, you seek. Simple.”

“And what happens when I find you?” Nick demands. “You ambush me? I don’t think so.”

“It’s your choice,” the Stranger chuckles. “If you don’t wish to find me...”

“I’m finding you!” Nick looks around. The streets feel darker, harder to discern a door from a window. He sees movement and frowns, edging up to what he  _ thinks _ is a door.

“I wouldn’t open that, if I were you,” the Stranger says from somewhere behind it.

Nick whips around, but no one is there. “Any why not?” he asks.

“You don’t know what you might let out,” the Stranger answers. “Think of it as Pandora’s Box. I’m sure you’re familiar with that old myth...”

Nick frowns. “You’re telling me that there’s  _ monsters _ behind that door?”

“Well,” the Stranger chuckles. “Perhaps it’s more apt to say there’s  _ one _ monster there...”

Nick turns back around, regarding the door and the movement behind its window. He reaches for the handle...

Another hand catches onto his, and he spins around to see the Stranger standing dangerously close to him, their noses almost touching. Nick staggers back, falling against the door.

“Goodness, man!” Nick says. “What are you doing?”

“Again,” the Stranger says, grabbing Nick by the collar of his coat and pulling him close again. “I wouldn’t open that, if I were you. There’s no telling what would happen if you open  _ that _ gateway. Wreck, ruin, addiction... there are many words for what an obsession can make of you, isn’t there?”

“Projecting, are we?” Nick asks, grabbing onto the Stranger’s hands to try and pry them off. The Stranger twirls his hands around and holds onto Nick’s. Nick squints, incredulous. “What are you doing?”

“What if I am projecting?” the Stranger asks, voice low. “What if my gateway here was a fixation with you? Would that change anything?”

“...I  _ must _ be dreaming,” Nick groans. “That would explain things.”

The Stranger smiles and chuckles. “Ah, yes. You’ve caught on.  _ ‘All that we see or seem’, _ as it were...” He cocks his head and leans in. “So, then, Detective. What would your subconscious have you do...? Here, in your handsome psyche and untethered abandon...?”

Nick narrows his eyes. “I really don’t want to know what it says about me that I’d dream up a serial killer pinning me to a wall and flirting with me.”

“I think it says you have more addictions than you anticipated.”

“Quiet, you,” Nick snaps. He worms his hands away. “So if this is nothing but a dream within a dream...” He grabs onto the Stranger’s tie and drags him in for a kiss.

The Stranger eagerly kisses him in return, wrapping one arm around Nick’s back while the other holds onto Nick’s hip.

Nick makes out with the Stranger as his free hand... slips behind him and grabs onto the door handle.

The two of them fall backwards into whatever is on the other side. For a second, Nick sees a flash of stars on an endless sky surrounding him from all angles. An odd beauty that lasts for a mere second before...

Nick runs through his reboot process before blinking his eyes open and sitting up in a panic. “What— Where—?”

“Easy, easy!” Sole scolds, pushing him back down. “Ugh, you’re  _ so _ lucky, you know that?”

“What happened?” Nick asks.

“You don’t remember?” Sole asks. “You saw the Stranger and went to chase after him but ran straight into a low-hanging bar.”

“...Oh.”

“But lucky for you, your ‘boyfriend’ left you a get well card.” Sole hands Nick an envelope. “Before you ask, I didn’t see him leave it, I just heard his stupid jingle and then saw this leaning against your hat.”

_ “Oh— _ He’s not my boyfriend.” Nick frowns at Sole’s amused look, and then opens the envelope and looks over the paper folded inside.

Black ink fills the page, save for shiny spots of stars scattered across the paper.

...Oh, Nick thinks. Maybe he  _ could _ get addicted to that.


End file.
